Written by Imagine the effect on your business. The IT system fails and everything is lost. Every single document on your network has seemingly gone up in a proverbial puff of smoke and the company is left with nothing – no records of orders, contracts, invoices, vital contacts, staff details, and payroll. Even the emails have simply vanished.
IT is the lifeblood of any organisation and those who fail to take the correct steps to protect it do so at their peril. Loss of data is a major threat to businesses of all sizes – from single desktop operations to multi-networked concerns.
Any IT solution should not be restricted to the basics like computer repair, network and computer support , but should also take into account business continuity planning.
Danger lurks around many corners ranging from mechanical and electronic failures, human error, to the more sinister employee sabotage and data theft. Even more unpredictable disasters can occur. Many businesses are still reeling from the devastating floods of 2007 – the type of Act of God that can hit any unprotected business.
In recent years companies with foresight have invested in tape back-up systems, where all important data has been copied to tape, usually each night. But even some of those have fallen victim to theft, loss or tape failure. Fortunately technology has moved on and companies wishing to ensure the best possible protection have taken advantage of IT specialists offering the ultimate solution – offsite data back-up to remote, highly secure servers.
This then leads to the need for far more expensive data recovery or raid data recovery as a method of hopefully retrieving vital data.
Many companies are now investing in remote data backup models as part of their business continuity strategy as these have a number of significant advantages.
For example, remote backup does not rely on restoration from tape devices, but instead lost data can be accessed almost immediately directly from a secure location regardless of the time of day or even where you are trying to access the data from. So there is no worry that the backup did not work or the tape was possibly faulty, or even that the backup device has failed and you can’t get a model that can read your tapes.
If you have not yet implemented a disaster recovery plan for your business then you should put this high on your business agenda. Could your business survive if it were to lose all the client records on your CRM system or financial data from your accounts package. Don’t forget the cost is not purely the loss of data but also the lost business that may ensue as well as the time and resource to get things back on track.
And of course on a final note, once you have implemented a business continuity plan make sure you test it to make sure the plan is robust in a real environment.